While it may be possible, HamStick type antennas are pretty poor antennas in actual use. The 40m and 80m versions are useless. Much better is to invest in a real antenna system if you are serious about HF mobile.

Although much more expensive than HamSticks, any of the major brand motorised antennas will run rings around them and in mobiles, especially, antenna performance is everything.

This is bad news. Last week I bought a 2mtr coliniar hamstick & a 20 mtr hamstick and I just finished welding a trailer receiver baseplate for them that will mount them at the back of my SUV. Have you used a hamstick? Is there anything I could do to make them usable?

Yes, I have used HamSticks. 20m and up are usable. They are better than no antenna at all. 40m and 80m and almost dummy loads. At best, the HamSticks are several dB down from the motorized antennas; they are very lossy, and the typical installation with marginal grounds make them worse.

Their only attraction is they are cheap.

The 2m one I have no experience with. I use commercial grade Larsens for VHF/UHF.

A Hamstick is easily used one band above the regular band by shortening the top whip. I've used a 20 meter Hamstick on 17 meters, and a 15 meter Hamstick on 12 meters. I use 1/8" diameter 3-foot brass rods for the new top whips (available from most hardware stores). You can trim these as necessary. I replaced the setscrews with #6 thumbscrews to make it easy to change the whips.

Hamsticks are not bad antennas when used on 20 meters and above. I agree that they are not very good on 40 meters and lower due to having poorer Q than bugcatcher or screwdriver antennas.

Finally, you will find that you need some sort of base matching for short antennas (if you don't, that means you probably have high ground losses, meaning your antenna system is pretty inefficient). Generally, you can get by without base matching on 15 meters and above as the SWR is probably OK at resonance due to the higher radiation resistance of the antennas on those bands.

No. By trying this you are further compromising a compromised antenna. You are certainly free to do this but what's the point? Optimizing any energy you want to radiate is a matter of design. In good condx. a properly installed hamstick will do nicely with 100 watts. Efficiency is already compromised by several factors just being mobile. Matching impedance alone does not mean much in terms of performance. The only way to demostrate this is by playing with various mobile antennas over a period of years. Cutting corners will lead to frustration. Doing it right will build confidence from success.

I'd think you would be better off using a longer whipand trying to use the hamstick on the next LOWER bandinstead. In this case, the longer whip should have ahigher radiation resistance, and so higher radiationefficiency for a given ground loss resistance.

But the key factor here is the self-resonant frequency ofthe loading coil. You might squeek a 20m coil up to 17,but probably not to 15m because the parasitic capacitanceacross the coil with no whip section installed will beenough to keep the resonant frequency below that. I'mnot familiar enough with the hamsticks to know where theywill actually tune, but from comments I've heard even oneWARC band up may be a stretch.

The quick test is to remove the whip (or perhaps replaceit with a few inches of wire) and find the resonantfrequency with a dip meter or SWR analyzer. If thatdoesn't get you up to the desired band, trimming thewhip won't help.

As the operating frequency approaches the self-resonantfrequency of the coil, the losses increase due to thecirculating currents. (Of course, the higher losseswill give a wider SWR bandwidth, a feature that one ofthe older mobile whips appeared to use intentionallyon 75m.) So it might work with some bands, but atreduced efficiency.

I would agree that the Hamstick can be used on other bands by shortening or lengthing the stinger. I have a capacitance hat made of three pieces of wire that allows the 75 meter stick to tune to the bottom of 80 meters. I also use a base loading coil for a better match to the coax. As for them being not good-I disagree. In the Ohio QSO party (in August) mobile with my Icom 706 we worked several HA stations on 40 CW and many EU on 20 CW. Like all mobile antennas they are a compromise but work very well in my experience.

I would agree that the Hamstick can be used on other bands by shortening or lengthing the stinger. I have a capacitance hat made of three pieces of wire that allows the 75 meter stick to tune to the bottom of 80 meters. I also use a base loading coil for a better match to the coax. As for them being not good-I disagree. In the Ohio QSO party (in August) mobile with my Icom 706 we worked several HA stations on 40 CW and many EU on 20 CW. Like all mobile antennas they are a compromise but work very well in my experience.

It should work, by shorting for higher freqs but you will have to tinker with it. While a hamstick may not be the best radiator, they are rugged and inexpensive. With the amount of tree bashing I do off road I don't want to tear up an expensive antenna. The hamsticks are throw-away, but functional.

I use a 75 meter Pro-Am hamstick knockoff on 60 meters. I optimized for 5371.5 KHz by shortening the 48" "stinger" down to 11" and adjusting protrusion below the set screw for the best VSWR in my mobile install. My antenna is mounted up high on the vehicle and I get good reports, a full S-unit better than the Hustler.

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